1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cup holder for a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
As illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, a conventional cup holder for a vehicle includes a rotatable arm 1 and a positioning mechanism 2. The positioning mechanism 2 permits rotation of the rotatable arm 1 through a series of retainable positions. The positioning mechanism 2 has at least one horizontally convex tooth and a plurality of horizontally concave portions. The rotatable arm 1 can be positioned stably at a plurality of positions due to the positioning mechanism 2. The rotatable arm 1 is immovable in an up-and-down direction.
The conventional cup holder has the following problems:
At the time of a rush acceleration or deceleration of a vehicle, the rotatable arm 1 may be pushed by a cup C, thus, creating an inertial force from the cup C that causes the rotatable arm 1 to move in a closing direction to release the cup C.
In order to prevent the rotatable arm 1 from releasing the cup C at the time of a rush acceleration or deceleration, it will be effective to increase a load necessary to shift the convex tooth from one concave portion to another concave portion of the positioning mechanism. However, if the load is increased, the force necessary to open the rotatable arm 1 under normal use will become excessive.
An object of the present invention is to provide a cup holder for a vehicle capable of preventing an arm from releasing a cup when receiving an inertial force from the cup.
A cup holder according to the present invention includes a holder body, an arm rotatable about a rotation center relative to the holder body in an opening direction and a closing direction, and a positioning mechanism for positioning the arm in at least one rotational position. The positioning mechanism includes a convex tooth and at least one concave portion. The convex tooth includes a first surface facing toward the opening direction and a second surface facing toward the closing direction. The first surface has a first angle to the opening direction of the arm, and the second surface has a second angle to the closing direction of the arm. The first angle and the second angle are different from each other in magnitude.
Because the first angle and the second angle are different in magnitude, by selecting the second angle greater than the first angle, the closing load of the arm is greater than the opening load. As a result, the rotatable arm is prevented from releasing a cup when the arm receives an inertial force from the cup C.